Sunday, October 31, 2010

Results from Huihan Liu Workshop

I received several emails from my October 17 blog post wanting to see what I painted at Huihan Liu's workshop. Below is a 20 x 16 painting which isn't entirely finished, but was the culmination of the last four weeks of Saturday classes. My goal to be a well rounded painter is one reason I study from accomplished figure painters like Huihan Liu and still life painters such as Jean Chambers and Robert Johnson. The more I study figure and still life painting, the better I become with those compositions as well as in my landscape and plein air paintings.
Huihan Liu has a great instructional style in that he demonstrates a portion of the painting followed by students working on the same area. He recognizes educational levels of his workshop attendees and provides the appropriate level of individual attention.

The face close up demonstrates my emphasis on shadows and soft edges. In addition to feeling more comfortable painting figures, I've already made adjustments to my landscape paintings. My edgework is more refined and I'm layering more with my paints.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Help Needed for Demonstration Photo

On Saturday, November 6, at 10:30 a.m., I will be giving a two-hour painting demonstration at Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio, Texas. I have done several demonstrations in the past and enjoy the interaction with the audience. Questions are always welcome as I am able to paint and talk at the same time, not something every artist is comfortable doing. A French scene with architecture is my preference. However, I'm not sure which photo to use. Which one do you think would be the most interesting to watch me paint?

#1

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#3

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Masterpieces from the Musee D'Orsay

Despite the rain, I had a wonderful day at the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. The 2nd part of the Masterpieces from the Musee D'Orsay exhibit is open through January 18, 2011 and well worth the visit. For bargain minded folks, you can buy 40% discount tickets which includes headsets at Costco. To be honest, some of the featured artists are not my favorites, but seeing Van Gogh's Starry Night alone made the trip worthwhile.

Those of you from around here may be familiar with Check Please! Bay Area.  It is a KQED local program that features three everyday people per show describe their favorite restaurant. The other two guests visit and rate the restaurant as well. This week, Woodhouse Fish Co. was featured. It is a seafood restaurant at the edge of the Castro. The Lobster Rolls are better than many I've eaten in Maine (they use Maine lobsters) and the stuffed artichokes with bay shrimp and dungeness crab are absolutely delicious. If you go to the museum exhibit and/or Woodhouse Fish Co., please let me know what you think.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Greenhouse Gallery Exhibit

Greenhouse Gallery came into my life when I was accepted into their 2005 Salon International. In 2006, they agreed to represent me.  I am honored to participate in an annual three-person exhibit with 18 new oil paintings. The pieces are now on their excellent website which allows you to see each painting in many formats including high resolution and framed.  The reception is November 5 and I will do a two-hour demonstration Saturday morning, November 6. I'm proud of the variety and quality of my art work for this show. You can link to the show here. I would love to know which is your favorite.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Huihan Liu Workshop

Yesterday, I completed 7 of the 8 Saturday sessions of Huihan Liu's Figure Painting workshop. Many professions require continuing education for their credientials to be renewed. As a full-time oil painter, I continue to seek improvement by taking workshops from respected artists. The monetary investment has been worth the price on many levels.

Huihan's class featured the same male model for the first 4 weeks. We have one week left painting the same female model. After his demonstration on a certain portion of the painting, students then work on the same area in their own painting. My take-aways so far have been punching colors even further and the need for a well executed drawing. Soft edges have always been important to me, but by watching Huihan Liu's use brush strokes, I've refined the process even further with the point of my brush.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

American Impressionist Society - Award of Excellence

I was honored to recently learn my painting won the Wind River Arts Award of Excellence
at the American Impressionist Society's 11th Annual National Juried Exhibition.
"Lobster Boat" 12 x 16

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Maritime Painting Video

I have a passion to paint boat scenes. This maritime video features some of my maritime work.  I hope you enjoy watching it. Music is Summer by George Winston.